Robert Anton Wilson needs help

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things

It turns out tragedy has struck the life of one of the most inspirational authors of our time.


Monthly contributions of $50.00 or more will be greatly appreciated.
All monies will go directly to Robert and can be sent to his PayPal
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Futique Trust, P.O. Box 3561, Santa Cruz, Ca 95063.

Hard Candy

Every now and then a film comes along that truly makes you appreciate the craft of film making. This movie is one of them. I had seen a trailer for Hard Candy earlier this year, and while impressed, I had not expected just how wonderful this movie would end up being. From the trailer I had gathered the elements of this original plot. Guy picks up underage girl on internet, twist... girl is the predator. The plot had me interested enough to pick up the movie, but the delivery was enough to make me adore it.

The movie starts of in an internet chat room where flirtations are exchanged between our two main characters. A meeting is established and the film begins in a coffee shop. From this point on we are put into a constant exchange of interesting dialogue between two very believable, captivating characters.

Hayley, played by Ellen Page, is a very mature, intelligent teenager who ends up going home with her online friend Jeff, a photographer in his 30's, played by Patrick Wilson. From the moment they enter Jeff's home the tension and chemistry between the characters evolves from subtle teases to psychological torment. It is a delight to see a relationship like this built between the characters and the audience. I tend to believe character development is one of the most lacking qualities in modern film. Most of the time I find myself (especially with the horror and suspense genre) not caring about the characters that are presented to me. They are typically one dimensional creatures that have no depth or interesting qualities. These characters are solid, intelligent people with multi-dimensional motives that the actors deliver with the greatest of ease.

Beyond the characters is the cinematography. From the very beginning of the movie you can see the care put into each frame. The colors come across so vivid and vibrant it feels as though you are standing with the actors witnessing every scene. It turns out that, "The digital color grade was affected by a specially built system designed and operated at the Moving Picture Company by Jean Clement Soret (famous for his transformation of digital video into filmic colour in Danny Boyles 28 Days Later.)" to quote the films website. The light is reflected perfectly on every texture drawing notice to subtle clues and ideas placed like easter eggs through the movie. Each item presented through the movie encourages thought and speculations of the next action. Each action that occurs, in turn, makes you question the consequence to come later. In these ways the sets and setting act like a character in and of itself. All together these elements add up to an uneasy tone that follows the film from beginning to end.

Director David Slade has given us a true masterpiece with this film. I find it difficult to find a flaw in this moving piece of art. I cannot recommend it highly enough.

Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN

Darren Aronofsky's THE FOUNTAIN
If you are not excited about this movie, you should be.

Ranting and raving

I don't really have a particular subject to address today. I am so flighty today... lacking direction. I had a Superman SoBe earlier and I am unbelievably wired. These drink are the basis of my existence anymore. They are by far my favorite energy drink. Not only do the taste magnificent (carbonated cherry), but they contain mega doses of caffeine and vitamins. I am concerned that they will eventually go away considering they are a movie promo drink, but I am going to enjoy the hell out of them until they are gone.

Silent Hill... I wrote about the movie several posts ago when we went to see it in the theater. I was amazed then and I am amazed now. For the past few nights it has been background noise as I have slept. This is one of the best horror movies I have seen in years. It is hard to describe just how right this movie feels to me. It brings together the pace of the video games with the essence of a well made Clive Barker film. While it isn't perfect it is a movie I can watch over and over without getting sick of it.

That is all for now... as flighty as I am right now I am sure I will do more later.

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Requiem

Yesterday, I found out my childhood pet died. He was old. We could never come up with a definitive answer, but he was probably about 18 years old. We picked him out of a litter of strays because he was the most active and playful. As time went on, though, he became elusive and lazy. Many times when he was a young cat you could find him laying on one of the beds purring loudly with his eyes closed. It really did sound like a motor running. During his middle age he would run off when guests came and just disappear for weeks at the time. We shared the desire for isolation. While dating Tammy and I watched him stare at a spot on the wall in my bedroom for about two hours. We suffered a lot together. He kept me company when some of the most traumatic events of my life occurred. I saved him when he had kidney problems and could do nothing but cry in agony.

It turns out he ended up getting hit by a car and slowly dying for a couple of days. I hoped he would be able to pass quietly and naturally into the infinite sleep, but unfortunately that is not the fate the universe decided to deliver. I will miss Rambo kitty. He meant a lot to me. I have included a photocast as a link that I will try to update as I find more pictures of him.

So Negligent

It has been so long since I have posted. So many things have happened I don't know where to begin. I have been obsessed with comics lately. It is a fun hobby, but it steals a lot of time and money. I have put up a myspace page for Informational Terrorism Transmissions that I will link to later. I have socialized more than I ever had before, and there are picture to prove it. Again, these are things I will post later. I have seen a few really cool movies and T.V. shows I would love to review, as well. For now I have to run because I started this post a little too close to work time.

So I have been away for a while. I did get to see V for Vendetta at the Imax as planned. That was really great. The movie itself was good. Better than can be expected for a Hollywood movie. I was kind of put off by the little liberties they took with the story. I suppose that is why Alan Moore asked to be removed from the credits. I definitely still recommend the trade paperback over the movie, but if you get a chance see the movie. Just don't neglect the comic!

Speaking of comics, I have fell back into the insanity of comic collecting. I absolutely love it. There are scores of great writers out there writing for the Marvel and DC Universes. The independent comics are doing great as well. I would love to promise reviews, but the way my time and laziness are right now it is hard to tell if I will be able to put anything up or not. I guess time will tell.

I did get to see Silent Hill. Wow! I was not let down by this gem at all. From the first second of the film the Silent Hill tone is set. The sounds of the original game echo and creep their way up your spine to tap into your points of fear and nostalgia in your memory receptors. The pace, the camera angles, the tone, the darkness... it is all there. The story has been restructured to take the plotlines of the first 3 games and weave them together with a female lead. The structure really does well to enhance the experience for those who have played the game while not making it to confusing on the newbie. About half way through I had given up on this being a real gore movie and had accepted that the gore was going to stay in a PG-13 type range. Was I ever wrong. By the end of the movie it had turned into a Clive Barker like splatter nightmare. I could have enjoyed this movie even without the gore, but what an added bonus. I don't want to give spoilers, but there was skinning, dismemberment, and a personal favorite, barbed wire. The ending was ingenious and found itself staying away from the most common formulas. I find it hard to say enough good things about this movie. It is a must see for horror fans. It felt so good to leave a theater and not be disappointed!

My poor blog, why have I forsaken thee?! Well, I did finish Half Life 2. It was pretty cool. I was consistently impressed with each level. The graphics were outstanding, the sound was legendary, and the end was surreal and beautiful. I would definitely give this game a 5 out of 5 on every aspect. The only slight problem I had was lagging in a few spots, but they were brief and are to be expected for such a graphically demanding game. You could really see this game pushing the XBOX. I would someday like to get a super powerful PC to fully experience this game, it's multiplayer, it's HD performance and it's mods. I would really like a Mac version, but that doesn't seem too likely in the near future. Oh well, I am just thankful to have played it at all. Now it is back to Doom 3 Resurrection of Evil. It isn't as good as Half Life 2 so far, but I love FPS's and I will finish it anyway.

I am hoping to go see V for Vendetta at an Imax this Sunday. I am really excited. I am worried as well. It seems Alan Moore is not very happy with the movie. This really worries me. On the plus side, I will be really pleased or really disappointed by a movie on a really big screen!

Card Player

Okay, so I did not like Argento's Phantom of the Opera. It was a bad movie, and Asia's acting did not make it any better. It was the first Argento title I purchased and had to get rid of. Saying that, I also have not been the biggest fan of his post-Trauma films. I thought Sleepless had some good elements, but it could not quite achieve the magic of his earlier films. Last night I witnessed an abomination- The Card Player. You could tell right from the beginning it was going to be bad. It jumped right into some cop-drama action right from the start with little to no character development. I only continued to watch out of respect to one of my all time favorite directors, and my hopes that the movie might get better. Unfortunately, it continued to get worse. The story was about a killer who would challenge the police to 5 games of poker. For every game the police lost the killer would cut something off of the victim. If the killer was the overall winner he would kill the victim, and if the police were the overall winner he would set the victim free. It ended up turning into a bizarre love story that lacked the depth of even the Stendhal Syndrome. While it did contain small elements of some of Argento's earlier movies they were barley noticeable and did not make the film any easier to watch. One of the more heartbreaking aspects of the movie was the lack of blood and gore. There were a few scenes of corpses and a couple of murders that implied cruelty, but they came up short like the rest of the film. There are three main reasons I watch Argento's movies; the artistic gore, the beautiful costumes and set designs, and the riveting, yet sometimes confusing, storylines. This movie was lacking on every aspect. The only good thing I can say is that I did not hate the music. The score was, while not nearly as good as a Goblin score, pulsing and driving in an attempt to keep the story in motion. I think it is time for Argento to give up writing his own movies. I have read that the last of the Three Mothers trilogy is being written by an American couple right now. I am not familiar with their work, but hopefully they will be able to do a better job than Argento could do in his current writing state. I just hope he is capable of directing it.

I am consistantly trying new browsers and plug-ins for browsers. I find it a delightful aspect of the internet. I have worked with Flock a bit, and I find it a bit to glitchy for my liking. I have moved on to Firefox. I like the amount of add ons the browser can have while remaining stable. Time will tell which browser I will use the most. I prefer the newest build of Safari, but it takes away all of my Blogger editing tools. Firefox neglects the spell check feature. I am sure if I explore enough I will find a plug in for one, though. Right now I am using the plug in Deepest Sender in Firefox. Hopefully it will work well. I shall move on. The net is vast.

Just posting with a new nifty bloger widget.  I love my Macs. 

Halfer Duo

I have been overwhelmed these past few days with a horrible addiction, Half Life 2 for the Xbox. The game is just so good. Just when you get to a point where you think, "how could this game be more innovative?" The game will deliver something else new and exciting. The gravity gun is really cool, but not as cool as leading your giant insect minions to battle the evil Foot Soldiers and Zombies! Then there is the score... Wow! Powerful, emotional... Hearing in 5.1 is just amazing. I am very impressed with this game and am not even 3/4 of the way through it. I am about 10 hours into it and have loved every minute of it. It is just stunning the way the puzzles are set up to advance from one place to another. I really can't say anything bad about the game at all. It is challenging in many aspects, but very rewarding as well. With every challenge comes a great sense of accomplishment. I am taking a rest tonight, but I hope to get to play for a very long time tomorrow.

Old Birthday Cake

I was just going through some of my old pictures and noticed this cake a friend did for me for my 23rd birthday. It was a delicious ice cream cake made by Amy Anglin portraying the rose cross.

the horror, the horror

Wow. I have seen some bad horror movies in my days, but I have to say Darkness Falls was one of the worst. I posted this at the Home Theater Forum several years ago.

I found it to be horribly predictable. While I understand the concept of fantasy and am a great fan of surrealism, there were so many contradictions through the film that I stopped questioning rationality at all by the end. However, toward the end of the movie you could tell from dialog and bad acting which character was going to die next. The end followed the same worn formula that so many "horror" and action films have been following since the early 90's. It truly seems that most new horror films are being made by dispassionate directors that will make a film of any genre to get a chance at their first big break. I am a big horror fan (especially Romero and Argento), and it sincerely breaks my heart to see a movie like this joining the rest of the garbage polluting my favorite genre.

What makes me post this? Fangoria online has let it be known that the director of Darkness Falls is directing the new Friday the 13th movie. I guess it can't be much worse than Jason X or Freddy Vs. Jason.

Lord of all fever and plague

Last week I was pretty sick. I had the time to do a few constructive things while enjoying the convenience of actually being able to call into work. It is a luxury I have not been able to exploit for many years due to lack of decent income and hatred of doctors that distribute thy holy work excuse. Now I come to a crossroad where my job is not the be all/end all definition of my existence and I can afford the time off (and a doctor visit). The sickness held me a victim to my own delusions and opened the door to bizarre synchronicities. Being a fan and follower of Discordianism I have eaten this strange situationism up with the proverbial spoon (mmmm.... wordy). Without being too specific, during by beloved call in days I was able to get into contact with a few old friends through strange circumstances and events.

I have ended up listening to a lot of Broadcast, David Cross comedy and discovering Mr. Show. All very productive and enlightening. I also had the opportunity to read 4 trade paper backs of the comic series Y: The Last Man about an interesting young man who discovers himself to be the last living male mammal on the planet along with his monkey Ampersand. The art and the story are magnificent and highly creative. I must read more!

Also, I have forgotten to mention The Fountain. I read the graphic novel a few weeks ago out of anticipation for the new Darren Aronofsky film. The book is very nice, yet I almost found it to be rushed. I was able to devour it in two sittings. It follows the parallel story of three characters searching for the fountain of youth in the name of love during 3 different time periods: past, present and future. After seeing the trailer and reading the book I am very excited for this movie to come out. Darren worked very hard to manifest this story in all of its mediums.

new horror

I have found myself making a lot of posts lately on other blogs about the watered down nature of new horror. I really haven't focused on this with my own blog. This is really a shame because I have a lot to say on the matter.

First, there is the the remake issue. At first I saw this as a harmless novelty. I found no harm in young directors reinterpreting classic horror movies. I thought maybe they would bring more attention to the classics. Unfortunately, the trend continued. It continued to such a level that it became overwhelming. Now, almost every week I hear about a new remake project coming into light. I suppose I wouldn't have a problem with this if the remakes were good, and, unlike my desire of bringing the classics into the light, ended up pushing the original films into the shadows. I hate turning on my television and seeing movies listed like The Texas Chainsaw Massacre and Dawn of the Dead only to find out they are exclusively showing the new remake. Since these new movies have been released I have yet to see the originals on cable. Not that they were frequently played prior to the remakes, it is still horrible to get your expectations up only to find these sub-par movies playing regularly. That is only a minor inconvenience for me though, because I have the movies I want on DVD if the craving gets to overwhelming. The problem really is that the younger audience who has not seen the originals are being exposed to these new movies without being given the opportunity to see the original movie with the same ease. I have problems with all of the remakes I have seen so far, but my most hated has to be the Texas Chainsaw remake. I have really tried to forget this remake... but really, it was so bad. Every good element of the original movie was neglected in favor of doing a character profile of uninteresting young actors in a pseudo-gore film. The original movie was able to achieve cinematic perfection that sent chills down your spine without the use of gratuitous gore. Don't get me wrong, I love gore, but when you have to rely on it to make your film interesting, you are in serious trouble. That goes double if your movie is a remake. I hate to say it, but I think Rob Zombie's House of 1000 Corpses ended up accidentally being a better remake of Texas Chainsaw than this movie ever could have been. You can see that Rob at least has love and passion for the genre.

Now I would like to discuss this new wave of reality torture films. I have to say when I first saw the trailer for Saw my mouth hit the ground. I thought, wow, an uncompromising horror film that is full of new original terror techniques. I was very excited. Tammy and I went to see it on Halloween and we were filled with anticipation. As the movie went on I was gradually becoming more and more disappointed with the lame ass acting that was continuously coming from every corner. The pain and originality of every scene was becoming over shadowed by the discomfort of the acting. Danny Glover's overacting alone was enough to make this movie a bad joke. Then there was Hostel. I thought that maybe since Quentin Tarantino was producing it, the movie may have some value. How wrong I was. For a while I thought I had mistakenly ended up in a theater showing a new National Lampoon's movie, but patience brought me to some gore. At this point it was too little, too late. These horrible uninteresting characters should have all died early in the movie to save us all some grief. And a hint to the writter/director, if you want to make a revenge film at least let us care about the character who is getting their retribution. After seeing movies like those of the Guinea Pig series and August Underground, films like Saw and Hostel are like watching Girls Gone Wild when there is free porn everywhere. It is just a half ass approach that doesn't make a whole lot of sense. I am truly embarrassed to have contributed to their box office gross.

Hollywood wants to know why the box office is doing so bad. They want to blame downloading and piracy for the low attendance, but in essence the movies they are producing are lacking style, form and originality in favor of the hot new actors, bastardized remakes and endless pop culture references to try to play on the audiences sense of nostalgia. Don't revisit the past - create a new better future. There are good horror films out there that aren't getting the distribution they deserve. High Tension, now that was nice. While not the most original movie I have seen, it had the feel and essence of a true horror movie. I don't want to give a lot about this movie away because I really think it is worth watching for any horror fan, but it plays on formula and taboos just enough not to sicken the viewer with over saturation. Another good horror film that I have seen recently is Night Watch. Hopefully this movie will end up getting a wider theatrical release then High Tension, but I doubt it. The studios only want to spread crap on the screens. Night Watch is a nice fresh look at the fantasy horror genre focusing on the classic battle between good vs. evil, while adding a nice humanistic spin to the story. Both movies have, in my opinion, good solid acting. Maybe it is because I have not been over saturated with the presence of these actors in film and other forms of media. That is enough of my rant for now. I always have more to say about the subject because I love horror. I just hate seeing the genre being treated so badly.

technorati tags: horror

Recently I saw a really good trailer for Silent Hill. From what I have seen it looks like it will capture the tone and story of the video game really well (hopefully more so than Resident Evil). If only Sonic Youth was doing the score. I remember the first Silent Hill game being loaded with strange references to the band... Speaking of music I found a really cool project while exploring iTunes last night. The name is Dabrye and it is some of the nicest glitch/trip-hop music I have heard in a while. Well, that isn't true, I hear a lot of good new music frequently, but I still highly recommend checking out their stuff at iTunes anyway. It is very rhythmic and hypnotic.

The Mirrormask of Vendetta

Tonight Tammy and I watched the long awaited MirrorMask. Living in an evil place like we do we have been unable to see this movie until now. We had promises from a local theatre and even a "scheduled" Theatrical Release Date from this local establishment, but it never showed. This independent theatre had a good history with showing quality films and giving regular midnight showings, but ended up neglecting two good recent opportunities. They also didn't show Thumbsucker which has me worried they have neglected to renew a contract with Sony Pictures Classic.
Nevertheless, this movie has been well worth waiting for. It is the story of a protagonist named Helena, who works in a Circus with her family, to journey through her images and dreams to find the enigmatic MirrorMask. I found the story to be a fantastic parable reflecting the journey through self identity and handling crisis. The trials and tribulations of the journey are very identifiable being a long time fan of the creative work of both writer Neil Gaiman and Director/designer Dave McKean. The film was an odyssey to the land of myths and images presented by two of the most prominent, innovative storytellers of the modern comic era. I feel that it would be safe to say that if you were ever a fan of the Sandman comic series from Vertigo or any of the works of Neil Gaiman you would definitely, or at the very least appreciate, if not absolutely love, MirrorMask. I find it difficult to find anything wrong with this modern masterpiece aside from the smallest detail. While a small detail, like the score could destroy other movies, somehow MirrorMask stands above this problem. While I do not hate said score, and some will probably disagree, I feel that the horns and freeform jazz influence was a bit to much for an already overwhelming visual feast. I think there are two options that were not achieved with the score as it was. First, it could have been minimized to bring a greater focus onto the images and story at hand (not to mention the very strong voice and effect tracks that were magnificent). By minimized I just mean removing the horns. The second option would be to bring the story together with an orgasmic, symbiotic score that blends the visual exploration with a reality distorting analysis into sonic ecstasy... unfortunately, anything that awe-inspiring was sorely lacking. In the movies defense, this is only my opinion and other may disagree, finding the music to fit the movie like a well tailored glove. Believe me when I say that the score does not hurt the viewing pleasure of this movie enough to neglect seeing it. Now, I have to say it leaves a great deal of expectations from the Vertigo story V for Vendetta. While MirrorMask is not directly related to Vertigo comics, it's creators have a long standing history with the D.C. owned company. After showing how disastrous a Vertigo story can be when translated to film by a big by a major studio with Constantine, MirrorMask shows that sometimes good work, by intelligent artists can still slip through the cracks. It is unfair to base expectations of a major studio blockbuster on a limited release like MirrorMask, especially when there wasn't a preconceived story that is already familiar to the viewers. Still, my hope is there, and I have given the segue to discuss what may now be my favorite graphic novel since Arkham Asylum (illustrated by the great Dave McKean). Though it was written in the 1980's V for Vendetta is a timeless comic series that explores a world where everyone is watched and controlled by an evil Big Brother like entity, until it is challenged by a masked renegade that has his own agenda. Another high recommendation, but I am in fear of how it translates to the screen.

Do not attempt to adjust your computer screen...

Do not attempt to adjust your computer screen...
Just a really cool site I found. More to come soon...

An Idiot's Guide to Dreaming

An Idiot's Guide to Dreaming
This is just an amazing site. I am surprised I never ran across it in my Coil searches on the net.

just a little try

Wow! I am blogging from my browser in Flock. This new browser looks really cool, and it has a blog command built right in to the toolbar. Once the blog pop-up screen appears you have most of the same options you do from the post blog section on Blogger's website. I don't know how it works with other blogging online tools, but it detected Blogger and my settings very quickly. It also has the add favorites command built into the location bar along with the new universal feed sign for rss, atom and more. I personally prefer this set up over Safari's because it is more visually striking and more practical for my comfort. Also the Goggle search feature from Safari has been improved as well. The search in Flock has Yahoo, Google, Amazon.com, Ebay, Technorati, Wikipedia, and wink already built, but it also allows you add from a large list of other engines. I not done much surfing with Flock yet, but so far I am really impressed with the features. I am finding new ones constantly and really loving them. I am writing this on my laptop, but I can't wait to use this browser with a good mouse.

Coil Interview

I was just going through some of my magazines the other day and ran across a Coil interview in bOINGbOING. I really used to love the magazine. The website is a good replacement since the print version went away. I contacted Mark Frauenfelder regarding reprinting the interview on my blog the other day, and he informed me the interviewer Jessica Wing had passed away last year. He has given permission to reprint the article, and I would like to thank him and offer my condolences for the loss of a good friend.

Lappy

It has been a while since the last post. I was really busy last week with a lot of closing shifts at work and the purchase of an iBook. The iBook was a mutual Anniversary gift between Tammy and myself. We had to get acquainted with OS 10.4.4 which was fun and cool. I hope to get Tiger installed on my old iMac soon, but they network fine for now so I am not to worried. I got a case for the laptop today, as well as a new wireless G router from D-Link. I had a tough time installing it because I couldn't get to the web address to configure the user data. It is working well now, so the trouble is worth it. The iMacs haven't seen much improvement because they are 802.11b, but the laptop with 802.11g is much faster on the net now. Though this post is still on my desktop I am sure I will be doing a lot of posting from the iBook in the future. I love the concept of being able to post from anywhere.

postcards

I just wanted to take time to put up the postcards Sleazy sent me with the ANS prints. I really like the postcard from Berlin. I just now got to hear a sample of "The Threshold Houseboy Choir" material and it is very impressive. I am going to try to order the compilation his work appeared on this week.

new mini podcast

I have just put together another sample of my Informational Terrorism Transmissions material. Most of it is old work from Isolationist Soundscapes, but the last two tracks are relativly new. The last track is a re-worked version of my first sound design incorporating the Schumann Resonance.

time is not on my side

Today was a good day! I got a package in the mail from Sleazy from Coil. In the package were prints from the ANS boxed set and a few interesting signed postcards. I have to go to work early today so I have not had a chance to scan anything in yet, but I will be posting images of what I got. I still have not had an opportunity to review any of the material I have received within the past few months, but hopefully I will have some time to do it this week.

Us

Here is a nifty little American Gothic-esqe photo of us from a couple of years ago. I just wanted to post it for our anniverary... I thought it might be nice :)

time trials

Today is mine and Tammy's 8th Anniversary. Being married to her has been the greatest thing ever. I never get tired of spending each and every available waking hour with her. She is my best friend, and has always been unbelievably supportive through my crazy mood swings and freak outs. We are hoping to get a new laptop this weekend for each other as a mutual present. I am so excited. We can make music anywhere! I call this post time trials because I have spent the last week working on my typing. It has been fun and I am progressing nicely. I have been unable to spend anytime with my web design or music this week because any free moment I have had I have been using typing tutors to help increase my speed. I'll be up to 60 wpm in no time.